No Comic Goodness Til Feb 13th

Hello all from Chennai, India. Here I sit, with only Chris' Tomb of Dracula Essential #1. I have not other comic goodness to read, and have to wait sooooo long. And I won't even read sites with spoilers, even though I really wanna.

And now that I have discovered that Chris is ill'ing, and Jake has once again stepped up to kick booty, hawk Ye Olde and write a few articles, I will attempt to add one or two.

For starters, how about that Tomb of Dracula Vol 1 Essential:



Now this is a fun book.
The black and white is nice, but I would love to see these in their colour form. It is well drawn with a lot of detail, even the scarring of faces that appears in later issues.
The stories were pretty good, but did start to drag in parts. One can't help but to root for him, because all his foes seem kinda pathetic. The soap opera-isms begin with the vampire hunters, and man, that's when I was begging for some neck sucking.
As new characters were introduced though, this helped the pacing of the books a ton. Blade was a ton o' fun and really lightened the book up. Remaining main "hunters", boring. Snooze fest. Dracula himself is very fun, but after awhile, he just keeps saying the same thing over and over and over again. That got old real quick. I know you are the Lord of Vampires. I know that humans are weak. I know that all should do your bidding. SHUT UP about it and find some new taglines or something, please.
One thing that I really did like in this was all the written setup detail. Alot of plot setups. That was actually written well and some made me chuckle by how silly it was, but that was typical of a non-hero book and it was the 70's, but it was fun. The other thing I liked was the stereotypes. I"m sorry, but it was just classic. Blade's dialogue was sometimes very...70's, Trashy, Americana. Hilarious. All of the women, except for Harker for the most part, seemed weak, fragile and unable to function. It made me laugh. The man always trying to protect the women. Heh. Blade was by far the most outrageous, and showed how dated this material is. But it was very fun to read this and just keep thinking that "they just don't do this anymore." And Blades' clothes- wow. What style, what panache.

I am looking forward to some of the later Moench stories in these volumes. Probably because he was the initial writer on the original Moon Knight series. So I have this odd clinginess to liking his stuff. And probably why I enjoyed the Werewolf By Night Insertion into the storyline too. A way out there story, but it was Jack Russell, going all Werewolfie on us and taking on Dracula himself.

I am not diehard "I Have to Live, Breathe and Die Anything Vampire" person. Some vampire stuff is fun, some really sux rox.
As an example, Nosferatu: The Vampyre/Phantom Der Nacht is a great movie- especially the German version. That is one creepy version of the Dracula tale , and its the music that really gives this movie a creepy feeling. I tired to think Tomb of Dracula to this music, but I couldn't do it. Tomb of Dracula was campy compared to this movie.
But then there are the dogs of Dracula items, such as Sea of Red. Wow, that was such a bad read, I don't know which sux ass worse, that or All Star Suck Batman & Robin. I think Sea of Red still was worse, as at leasts ASSBAR has some pretty styling art still.

Anyways, Essential Tomb of Dracula #1, still worth the read. Just for the 70's language alone it was worth it, and the stories were still pretty decent.
Rating: 3/5.


Oooo, what am I hoping that I have "pulled" for me at my psuedo LCBS, which is right now minus the L.
Seven Soldiers: Bulleteer #3. Might as well finish it off. Ish 1 I like, Ish 2 really slowed it down.
Necromancer #4. Its entertaining.
Red Sonja #5. I like this book. Great stories.

Possible Pulls: Give me some input here anyone. Give me a sign if these books are worthwhile:
Fury Peacemaker #1. Sounds good, but unsure. WWII action in Tunisia, good. Panzers good. Odd name for a German Tank Commander though.
New Excalibur #4. The first three were ok. That's it. OK. Does this ever pick up the pace or make me care about any of the characters?

Alright all, have a great day. Wish me luck on finding a place here that I can gather at to view the Super Bowl.

Randy